June 2009

Diabetes is a disease which happens due to some physiological disorder, i.e. metabolic disorder. It occurs as a result of lack of insulin or a surplus of insulin antagonists, leading to a relative insulin lack. According to WHO, India has the largest number of diabetes in the world hovering between 25 to 30 million. In the coming years, India is projected to have more than 37 million diabetics by 2010 and over 57 million in 2025
In India, the earliest mention of the use of medicinal plants has been made in the Atharva Veda, one of the oldest repositories of human knowledge. As far back as 4,000 BC and even earlier, Ayurveda, an ancient Hindu art of medicines and of prolonging life, has been believed to possess a status of its development. The whole credit for standardizing this system of medicines goes to well known, renowned personalities viz., Charak, the Physician and Sushruta, the Surgeon. Their well noted works written so long ago that these are still greeted by the leading authorities of the western countries. However, the contribution of Dhanwantri, the pioneer God of Medicine, destroyer of senility, disease and death descended on the Mother Earth, cannot be ruled out. He was, infact, teacher of Susruta and his other colleagues and is known as Progenitor of Ayurveda.
Medicinal plants not only play an important role in human life but also play a pivotal role in animal life, especially in rural areas. Rural people of India living in about 6 lakh villages and the tribal dwelling in forests always utilize medicinal plants for preventing and curing various ailments and diseases. However, in the present write-up, a role of a few medicinal plants has been detailed with regard to cure diabetes.

1. Don't seek happiness. If you seek it, you won't find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing what is, rather than making up stories about it.
2. The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral, which always is as it is. There is the situation or the fact, and here are my thoughts about it. Instead of making up stories, stay with the facts. For example, "I am ruined" is a story. It limits you and prevents you from taking effective action. "I have 50 cents left in my bank account" is a fact. Facing facts is always empowering.
3. See if you can catch the voice in your head, perhaps in the very moment it complains about something, and recognize it for what it is: the voice of the ego, no more than a thought. Whenever you notice that voice, you will also realize that you are not the voice, but the one, who is aware of it. In fact, you are the awareness that is aware of the voice. In the background, there is the awareness. In the foreground, there is the voice, the thinker. In this way you are becoming free of the ego, free of the unobserved mind.

Olive leaf is the leaf of the Olive tree- Olea europaea - a small evergreen tree native to Asia Minor and Syria but also cultivated in the Mediterranean area, Peru, Chile and South Australia. While the fruits of this tree-olives- and olive oil are very well known as highly beneficial as food ingredients all over the world nowadays, olive leaves and their amazing properties are less known and use outside the Mediterranean space
According to the Greek mythology Athena, the Goddess of heroic endeavor gifted the tree to the city of Athens and the olive leaves were considered the symbol of abundance, glory and peace while olive oil was the symbol of purity and goodness; in ancient times the winners in the Greek Olympic Games were crowned with a wreath of olive leaves.
In Ancient Egypt olive leaves were the symbol of heavenly power and the Egyptians were using the oil extracted from them for mummifying their kings, considering that these leaves were somehow associated with eternal life. And they were not exactly wrong, as nowadays it is proven that the olive tree can live thousands of years. There are seven olive trees in Israel that are over 3000 years old and they are all healthy and continue to produce olives, and in Israel scientists confirm that throughout are tens of ancient olive trees that are 1500-2000 years old & the ones in Gethsemane Garden in Jerusalem have witnessed the presence of Jesus Christ.

Acidity refers to the excess secretion of acid by the gastric glands of the stomach. The stomach secretes hydrochloric acid that is responsible for proper functioning of the digestive system. This acid further secretes various digestive enzymes like pepsin that break the food particles for easy digestion. A normal level of acid is required in the stomach for proper digestion of the complex foods. When there is less secretion of acid the food is not digested properly and in case of excess secretion it gives rise to a condition known as acidity.
Causes of Acidity: Refined and fibreless food is the main cause of acidity. Stress is the other main cause. Smoking and excess of alcohol tends to weaken the nervous system, as a result the mucus membrane and the stomach lining stops functioning properly. High intakes of spicy foods, overeating and eating hurriedly are also the causes of acidity.
Home Remedies for Acidity
1. Sucking a piece of clove will give relief from acidity.
2. Consumption of milk and milk products is beneficial during acidity.
3. Intake of fresh mint juice daily is the best home remedy for acidity.
4. Taking a mixture of two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and two teaspoons of honey in a glass of water before meals, will reduce the chances of acidity and is another good home remedy for acidity.

Piper longum or long pepper is commonly known as pippali in India and is one of the popular herbs mentioned in all ancient scriptures of Ayurveda. Belonging to the piperaceae plant family it is a slender aromatic climber with perennial woody roots and cordate leaves. Flowers are in solitary spikes. Fruit is very small sunk inside the fleshy spike and blackish green in color. Mature spikes collected and dried, forms the commercial form of pippali and roots due to its medicinal importance. It is mostly cultivated in loamy soils where there is hot most climate.
Scientific fact about Pippali
It is scientifically proved that pippali given with the allopathic anti-tubercular treatment decreases it's dose to half, so the side effects of the anti-tubercular treatment are also reduced to half.

In Ayurveda Sciatica is known as Gridhrasi as gait of the affected person resembles that of an Eagle's walk & the inflamed nerve appears like Eagle's beak, hence the term Gridhrasi is used for it. Sciatica is a pain resulting from irritation of the sciatic nerve. Sciatica pain is typically felt from the low back to behind the thigh and radiating down below the knee. The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body and begins from nerve roots in the lumbar spinal cord in the low back and extends through the buttock area to send nerve endings down the lower limb.
Ayurvedic Management of Sciatica
Diet: Pulses, beans, and fried foods should be prohibited. Curds and other sour substances should be avoided. Saffron, in small quantities, should be mixed with milk and given to the patient to drink.
Life Style: Gentle exercise of the leg is advised. Exposure to damp and cold should be avoided. Swimming in warm water is a good exercise for legs.
Yoga: Halasana -Improves circulation of blood and lymph, stimulates the immune system and releases stress and tension in the lower back including the spine, Shalabhasana-Strongly strengthens the core body and the low back muscles. It also stimulates the endocrine, nervous and reproductive systems. Bhujangasana- Develops the strength & flexibility in the spine and rejuvenates spinal nerves. All these yoga postures should be undertaken under the supervision of yoga expert.
Ayurvedic formulations: Herbs like Raasna, Aswagandha, Dasamoola, Satavari & Kuth. Yograj guggulu, Rasana Saptak Kwath, Vishgarbh Tail & Mahanarayan Tail gives good results if given in correct dose.
Panchakarma therapies: Abhyang (massage with specific herbal oils) Nadi Swedan (medicated steam bath), Elakizhi (herbal leaf bundle massage), Pizhichil (medicated oil bath), Kati vasthi(a treatment done on to the back to decrease spinal compression), Vasti (medicated enema) Virechan (purgation) therapies of panchkarma are tremendously useful for treating the underlying cause of the sciatica without any side effects.

By 2020 India is going to be a diabetic capital as its epidemic is growing in size and complexity. There is an increasing realization that physicians alone are unable to provide the care required by people with diabetes to help them live life to the fullest. Physiotherapy is having a lot to offer in prevention, management & complications of diabetes mellitus.
Physiotherapy involves physical treatment techniques such as massage, use of electrotherapeutic and mechanical agents rather than drugs for the management of a condition. Any person with diabetes whose aching legs have experienced relief after a massage or whose feet have been relaxed after a soak in cool water will testify to the importance of physiotherapy in relieving their symptoms. However diabetologist generally have been slow to exploit the benefits of this science. This may be due to lack of awareness of its potential for improving health and wellbeing, or because of shortage of trained personnel in our country.
Role of physiotherapy in prevention of diabetes: The diabetes prevention project demonstrated that life style modification, including intensive exercise is more effective in preventing diabetes than pharmacological therapy and highlighted the role of trained professionals in motivating people to follow lifestyle interventions.

Yoga can very well prevent and manage diabetic conditions. It acts as a potent adjuvant in the management of diabetes. Regular yoga practice helps to increase glucose utilization and to attain ideal body weight.
Diabetes, being one of the important lifestyle related disorders, is gradually expanding its roots among the population since the last 3-4 decades. This is directly proportional to the amount of stress among the population. In spite of the tremendous technological advancements in the modern medical system, it failed either to control the disease process or prevent the disease effectively. Here, yoga comes into play. The techniques of yoga can very well prevent and manage diabetic condition. As the role of yoga in reversing the stress reaction has also been proved beyond doubt, that's why the physicians of modern medicine are prescribing yoga for their patients.

Diabetes Mellitus viz Madhumeh has become a national and global matter of concern. India has already gained the crown of becoming diabetic capital of the world as more than 3 crores of Indian are facing the wrath of this metabolic disease. Industrialization and development in every sphere has given us many things which have raised our economic status but it has also given excessive comforts, readymade foods, drinks and of course more stress. Our economy, which was earlier dependent on villages and farming, now depend upon industries and its 24 hours duty workers.
Changing life styles and never ending race for getting more and more has added many new disorders in human beings. Diabetes, Hypertension, Gout, Hyperlipidaemia, Anxiety, Insomnia to name a few, have changed the medical epicenter. People of today's world are loosing their health for wealth and thereafter they go on loosing their wealth for maintenance of health.
Ayurveda has stated very early that Diabetes is basically a lifestyle disorder which usually victimizes the people who have sedentary life style, prefers to sit and enjoy comforts and prefers to have high energy diet like milk, milk products & sweets. Further Ayurveda has stated that it is not an easily curable disorder. That is why the path for curing disease is still dark. The journey which started from Acharya Charak who observed the Ants reaching for sweet urine to today, the making of human insulin injections is still going on.

Mango has fascinated Indians from times immemorial. The cluster of mango leaves can be seen in many of the paintings and sculptures of Ajanta and Elora. The unique fragrance of its blossom and the unrivalled sweet taste of its fruit have been immortalised in the ancient Sanskrit literature which include the Valmiki Ramayana and the voluminous work of Kalidasa.
Ayurvedic texts also did not lag behind and have abundantly eulogised the medicinal qualities of mango. It is known as amra and rasala in Sanskrit. Mango had been explored for its healing properties by the ancient seers who have written in detail the usefulness of whole of its tree including the leaves, flower, fruit , seed kernel and the tree bark.

Breathing is first law of life; no one can live more than a few minutes without an adequate supply of oxygen. We must have fresh air to stay alive.
To make this possible, nature has provided us with a remarkable living pipeline, the wind pipe or trachea. If that life lines were blocked or cut off, we couldn't survive more than a few minutes.
If the nose is blocked, or if the mucus membranes are profusely covered with impurities, then the nose can not perform its duties effectively. In fact if the nose is completely blocked, then the person is forced to breath through the mouth. However, the normal nose blowing does not remove all impurities, engrained, dried mucus can remain there. This is one of the reasons that the practice of neti was developed to ensure the best possible cleaning of the nose.

The biggest factor that determines how well your age is not your genes but how well you live. Not convinced? A new study of 20,000 British citizens published in the British Medical Journal shows that you can cut your risk of having a stroke to half by doing the following things:
• Being active for 30 minutes a day,
• Eating five daily servings of fruit and vegetables
• Avoiding cigarettes and excess alcohol.
While those are some of the obvious steps you can take to age well, researchers have discovered that centenarians tend to share certain traits in how they eat, move about, and deal with stress, the sorts of things we can emulate to improve our own aging process. Of course, getting to age 100 is enormously more likely if your parents did. Still, Thomas Perls who studies the century-plus set at Boston University School of Medicine, believes that assuming you've side-stepped genes for truly fatal diseases like Huntington's, "there's nothing stopping you from living independently well into your 90s." Heck, if your parents and grandparents were heavy smokers, they might have died prematurely without ever reaching their true potential lifespan, so go ahead and shoot for those triple digits.

Lotus is an ayurvedic herb with tremendous medicinal value. All types of lotus are used in Ayurveda for its therapeutic use. Apart from medicinal use, lotus is having a great mythological and religious significance.
Ayurvedic energetic: It's taste is bitter, astringent and sweet. Potency is cold. Post digestive effect is sweet and pungent and it purifies Kapha and pitta dosha.
The legend of the Lotus flower is as old as civilization itself and probably older. Stories of the Lotus-eaters and the Lotus worshippers of pre-historic times survived as oral tales and rude drawings until the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Greeks, in their golden ages revived the myth and the power of this mystical bloom. In Indian mythology Lotus is said to be favorite herb of Goddess of prosperity Kamala i.e. Lakshmi. She is always portrayed standing or sitting on the flower of lotus. Lotus flower is natural abode of Lakshmi. Padama is another name of Lakshmi i.e. why lotus has got another name Padam also. Every name of Lotus is having its own tale. Arvind - because of desire of acquiring it being very beautiful, Sarsig- As it is born in ponds, Kusheshya- Sleeps in water, Tamras- Resides in water, Pushkar- Strengthens (Pushti) the body. Lotus with white flowers is named Pundrika and Kumud; with red flowers, is called Koknad; with bluish flowers it's known as Indivar or Kuvlag. Seeds of lotus are called Padambeej or Kamlaksh.

Cravings may be complicated: Grab any diet book and you'll find a number of theories about what causes cravings. Some claim that eating too much sugar, or too many foods that have a high glycemic index, or foods that do not have enough fiber or fat can make you hungry soon after eating. Some say not eating enough protein or going too long without snacking can trigger cravings. Some suggest that hunger can actually indicate emotional hunger, so any practical advice on food or fitness won't get to the root of the problem. These proposed causes may play a role, but, in reality, it may not be that simple.

In Ayurveda Vyanga means any dark spot on the face. At present, some diseases are quite challenging so as the Vyanga is one of them. It is also a personality damaging disease.
Nature is always doing better for all living being; but life of modern man is away from the nature. In fact, there has been a drastic change in his day by day activities including Life style, Food habits, Sexual life, Environmental Pollution, Industrial and Occupational hazards.
Face is the paramount important organ of the body. Face reflects the personality of person. It is said that "Face is the index of mind". It is the substratum of vital parts. It reflects all the expressions e.g. joy, anger, sorrow, excitation etc. This most important and beautiful organ is affected by certain anomalies, Vyanga is one of them.

When I came across top 10 developed countries in the world book of facts, it came to my mind to check out the Vastu of these countries. On seeing the maps of these countries astonishing similarities in the Vastu of theses countries were revealed.
For prosperity, simple rule of thumb in Vastu is that buildings with open, light and extended North East Ishan Kone, North or East are most favourable. Here is the list of top 10 developed countries along with the maps. Let us see how applicable this rule is:
All these countries are having an open sea in their North-East and extended North-East, North or East direction except Switzerland. Switzerland is having a slope towards its North-East because of the high altitude mountains on its South-West.
Selection of Site: Before constructing a building the foremost caution is selection of a site, Vastu advise taken after making a foundation and raising walls is sometimes is not so useful. Location of surrounding building, hill, valley or a river etc, is also important.

Parsley is the world's most popular herb. It derives its name from the Greek word meaning "rock celery". Parsley actually is a storehouse of nutrients, than just being a decorative garnish.
Parsley is native to the Mediterranean region of Southern Europe. While it has been cultivated for more than 2,000 years, parsley was used medicinally prior to being consumed as a food. The ancient Greeks held parsley to be sacred, using it to not only adorn victors of athletic contests, but also for decorating the tombs of the deceased. The practice of using parsley as a garnish actually has a long history that can be traced back to the civilization of the ancient Romans.
The two most popular types of parsley are curly parsley and Italian flat leaf parsley. The Italian variety has a more fragrant and less bitter taste than the curly variety. There is also another type of parsley known as turnip-rooted (or Hamburg) that is cultivated for its roots, which resemble salsify and burdock. Parsley belongs to the Umbelliferae family of plants, and its Latin name is Petroselinum crispum.